Funding Opportunities

The Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food is pleased to announce a new Exchange Fellowship Programme in collaboration with the Florida Climate Insitute for faculty members at these two universities to forge new partnerships and foster the development of innovative, interdisciplinary research projects in the area of food systems, climate and biodiversity.

We will be selecting two fellows for the academic year 2015/16 to visit the University of Florida, and two to visit Oxford.

The Fellowship will cover travel and subsistence expenses for these exchange visit up to a maximum of £5,000 per Fellowship. Applicants must be currently employed by either the University of Florida or the University of Oxford.

About this Opportunity

We have grants for early-career researchers (see Eligibility section) to attend a workshop in Brazil entitled 'Next Generation Sequencing applications to improve livestock welfare, food security and socioeconomic stability in Brazil'. The grants will cover all costs associated with attending the workshop, including travel, accommodation and meals. Please note that travel insurance and medical insurance are not covered by the grant.

The workshop is part of Researcher Links, being run under the Newton Fund. Through the Newton Fund, the UK will use its strength in research and innovation to promote economic development and social welfare of partner countries.

The workshop will be taking place in Sao Paulo, Brazil on 12-16 October 2015.

Eligibility

This is open to early-career researchers based in the UK and Brazil only. There is no restriction on nationality, however participants must be affiliated to a UK or Brazilian higher education or research institute at the time of the application.

Early-career researcher is defined as having obtained a PhD no more than 10 years prior to the workshop dates. A PhD is a requirement. Consideration is given to researchers that have had a career break.

In March 2015, Securing Water for Food announced its third call for innovations. This $12.5 million call for proposals focuses on identifying market-driven, low-cost, and scalable solutions that will enable us to improve water efficiency and wastewater reuse; enhance water capture and storage; and reduce the impacts of salinity on aquifers and food production.

Thanks to generous funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, TORCH is offering joint doctoral studentships and paired research sabbaticals to enable science and humanities postholders in Oxford to develop joint research projects and to provide opportunities for outstanding doctoral students to conduct their research under the joint supervision of a scientist and a humanities scholar.

The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Food Standards Agency (FSA) have come together under the auspices of the Global Food Security programme, to jointly fund four to six research grants relating to understanding the challenges of the food system. Joint funding of up to £1.87 million at 100 per cent full economic costing (fEC) is available for this call.

The BBSRC, in partnership with the Food Standards Agency (FSA), is looking for applications for early career research fellowships (analogous to the David Phillips fellowships scheme) in areas of science that are of strategic and scientific interest and importance to the funders.

The FSA is particularly interested in proposals which can demonstrate potential for significant leaps forward in providing the evidence needed to underpin its objective of safer food for the nation. These may be on current/new areas of interest where building research capability/capacity/new approaches would be helpful, for example:

on foodborne disease organisms such as Listeria, Campylobacter, VTEC, Norovirus including realising the full potential of whole genome sequencing approaches.

The Technology Strategy Board, together with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), and Scottish Government, is offering up to £13m for businesses to develop engineering solutions across the agri-food supply chain.

Humanity faces profound questions about how our planet can sustain nine billion people by 2050. With the trend of urbanisation, the majority of the world’s population now live in cities. There is a global nutrition crisis, with dual problems of undernutrition and obesity. Meanwhile, environmental and population changes have major implications for issues including food and nutrition security, access to clean water and sanitation, and natural disasters. In meeting these challenges and delivering culturally, socially and economically appropriate solutions, research has a critical role to play.

The Wellcome Trust are pleased to launch their Sustaining Health awards scheme, with a call for proposals for pilot research projects in this broad area. This call supports small awards in the order of £250 000 (exceptionally up to £500 000) for up to two years.